Preview of Symmetry in Nature

Blog Stats

Visitors Jul 2012 to Mar 2015

Tag Archives: Symmetry

Now the Arts Festival is all over and the dust has settled it’s time to share a few of my faces from the exhibition.

Meagan Swain came to visit

Looking in, looking out

Desmond the car guard

Overlaid

Red head in the aloes

My former student, Meagen, was a welcome visitor towards the end of the 11 day run. The eyes in the frame behind give a fun effect to her picture. The young woman with the tree earring came in one day and kindly agreed to pose in front of the Green Men pictures – Harry Owen pointed out that the Green Man appears to be looking back out at her! Outside every day was Desmond, , our friendly car guard, ready to greet you, help out and very much part of the scene. One morning I experimented with some new effects and did an overlay of two festinos studying my pictures as the light angled across them from the window. Then, in the last picture, I had a chance to photograph one of the Rhodes’ Fine Art students (I’m afraid I don’t know her name), she is the red head who is posing in front of the aloes.

It was opportunistic but I think I’ve got some nice pictures and they bring out the memories of #NAF17.

Here’s the complete catalogue of the photographic artworks for my Symmetry exhibition. Click on the images for a full-sized view. If you want to purchase, or would like further information, please use the contact me form and I’ll respond to your request. Print orders take 24 hours and will then be couriered to your address: the price includes courier charges.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at the Johan Carinus Art Centre. The exhibition runs daily throughout the National Arts Festival from 29 June to 9 July: 9am to 5pm.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland Price

Aloe Dreamscape

Aloe Dreamscape Price

Aloe Web

Aloe Web Price

Angel Dryad

Angel Dryad Price

Angel Wings Triptych

Angel Wings Triptych Price

Äsperöd Creature

Äsperöd Creature Price

Äsperöd Green Man

Äsperöd Green Man Price

Äsperöd Portal

Äsperöd Portal Price

Äsperöd Fantasy

Äsperöd Fantasy Price

Aurajoki Runic

AuraJoki Runic Price

Cosmos Web

Cosmos Web Price

Dryad Fantasy

Dryad Fantasy Price

Dryad

Dryad Price

Göta Green Man

Göta Green Man Price

Green Dryad

Green Dryad Price

Natalie Metallica

Natalie Metallica Price

Nimis Green Man

Nimis Green Man Price

Nordic Fantasy

Nordic Fantasy Price

Nordic Noir

Nordic Noir Price

Scarab Dryad

Scarab Dryad Price

Stained Glass Dryad

Stained Glass Dryad Price

Stendörren Dreamscape

Stendörren Dreamscape Price

The Cull Cover

The Cull Cover Price

The Wild Wood

The Wild Wood Price

Through the Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass Price

Tsitsa Web

Tsitsa Web Price

Tureborg Hornbeam

Tureborg Hornbeam Price

Vresbok Portal

Vresbok Portal Price

The Grahamstown Winter Series

I thought it was fitting to have six pictures from my Grahamstown Winter Series in the exhibition. They are all taken looking north, into the low angle winter light, through the mist and smoke so typical of this time of year.

One of the things I wanted in the exhibition was a small set of pictures that show off my love of harmony and beauty. The dryad series covers a whole wall and they’re quite dark. So I set about shooting some much lighter pictures with clean lines that can be simply mirrored. I’ve combined them into one mosaic image here but in the exhibition they are four separate pictures.

Webs Mosaic

Three of these pictures are of spiders webs. The water droplets from the early morning mist pick out the graceful shapes of the webs in the cosmos and aloes. I think the lines give nice tension and balance: the backgrounds are very pale because of the mist. I took the pictures one late summer morning at Tsitsa Falls backpackers. The fourth picture is of hornbeam trees in the beautiful forest below Tureborg in Uddevalla, Sweden. In this picture the curved shapes of the tree trunks are balanced by the branches and the shape of the valley sides. It complements the other three pictures nicely even though the subject is different.

My solo exhibition – Symmetry – is at the Carinus Arts Centre for the National Arts Festival from 29 June to 9 July 2017. I’ve decided to write a series of posts about the images that are in it so that you can see what it is about. When you walk into the exhibition you’ll immediately pass by the three green men. One of them is so striking that I chose it for the poster and advertising. Here he is.

Äsperöd Green Man Final

It’s an image of a Scots Pine tree (tal in Swedish) deep in the forest near our apartment in Äsperöd, Sweden. I’ve mirrored it into two and also overlaid the image on itself. This is the original.

Äsperöd Green Man Original

I took the picture one evening last September (early autumn in Sweden) when the light was soft and diffuse. That meant I got an image with lots of detail and I could increase the contrast and saturation in post production to give the final picture more impact.

The Green Man is thought to be a pagan symbol of rebirth – that’s according to Wikipedia anyway – and found in architectural motifs right across Europe. It’s usually a face made of branches, leaves, fruit and vines. That’s certainly the case with the second green man too.

Göta Green Man Final

This image’s of an oak (ek) tree showing the first autumn colours and I’ve used the identical processes of mirroring and overlay on it. The foliage is far more dense and so the image is much more richly textured.

Göta Green Man Original

I took the original at lunchtime whilst walking in the nature reserve above the Göta River in Trollhättan. Once again I made sure that the light was soft and diffuse. The third green man is a little different. He’s an artefact made of driftwood in Lars Vilk’s amazing construction called Nimis located in Skåne.

Nimis Green Man Final

I like the way he just stands there with his arms on his hips. There’s something oriental, almost samurai-like, about his presence as though he’s covered in armour. Here’s the original picture. It’s taken with a fish-eye lens from the walkway that tunnels between the towers.

Nimis Green Man Original

It was an overcast, drizzly October day so I managed to get all three images to complement each other nicely in terms of light conditions.

We’ve been having lovely autumn weather with clear air, blue skies and low angle light that brings out all the changing colours. I’ve tried to capture this in these images and combined them into one pattern of autumn harmony.

Autumn Harmonies

Going clockwise from the top right the inspiration was a bare tree in front of the after sunset glow. At bottom right is a red leaf in a sea of green foliage. The bottom left picture is a flower in the bracken and the top left is the bark of a birch tree. Here’s how the bare tree looked.

Bare Tree and Belt of Venus

And here’s a detail of how it looked after combining and overlaying the image eight times.

Autumn Harmony detail

I’m often asked if my images are for sale and the answer is yes. I’m exhibiting again on the fringe of the National Arts Festival at the Johan Carinus Art Centre, Grahamstown from 29 June to 9 July. If you’d like to purchase one of these, for example, then just email me using this contact me link and I’ll provide a quote. Cost for a high resolution 50cm width print of Autumn Harmonies will be approximately R1000 including packaging and courier to South African destinations. I have also organised having prints made and delivered overseas.

A couple of weeks ago I posted this picture on Facebook. It’s one of my favourite trees catching the warm sunshine: full of twisty arching shapes. At the time my good friend Harry Owen said he could see an artwork coming on …. he was right.

Äsperöd Gnarly

I’ve managed to find some time to work with it and I’m pretty happy with these two images. They’re full of mirroring and overlay and to me they’re fantasy works. This first one overlays an image of the forest floor to give a warm rich texture.

Äsperöd Mushroom Fantasy

The second one rotates the trees and the cross processing of the overlaid images gives some amazing blue and red tints. There’s a completely different feel to it.

Äsperöd Fantasy

This is still a work in progress and hopefully I’ll be putting up more pictures as my ideas develop.